Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Some Profession Changes I'd Like to See

This post will not be about how to "fix" professions. That would be a much longer post that is more suited for the beginning of a new expansion. There is no fix for them now, they are what they are. That does not change the fact there are two simple changes I would like to see done that could make professions, in my opinion, so much better for the remainder of this expansion.

Crafted (3):

This restriction needs to be removed. Lets face it, the amount of materials needed to create an entire gear set in every slot would be insane. It would be to the point that only the most hardcore (in terms of time played) player would even be capable of considering being able to gear up that way.

The only other type of person that could take complete advantage of the crafted 3 limit being lifted would be the gold goblin but again, lets face it, the amount of gold needed to get each piece of gear to its top level and with the right stats would be insane. I was one of those people that were over gold cap before the expansion was released and I only increased that even with no effort to make gold, and I still would not touch gearing a character with gold this expansion with a 10 foot pole. It would just be way to costly and there are better ways to get gear.

However, at this point, why not let people do whatever they want with it? If they wish to spend countless hours collecting materials or making gold so they can either make or buy a piece for every slot, let them. I really am hard pressed to see how having people actually play the game is a bad thing, even if they are spending all their time gathering materials or making gold, at least they are playing.

I can see why at the start of the expansion they did not want anyone feeling they "had to" get all crafted gear to start raiding. They do things to try to protect us from ourselves in terms of burn out all the time and it makes sense. But now their reasoning behind the limit is not on as solid ground in terms of reasoning, even more so if this is indeed the "end" of the expansion.

If someone wants to spend the next 16 months (god forbid it happens again) crafting the perfect gear for all their alts, let them do it. At least it gives them something to do.

Soulbound:

Crafting material should not be soulbound. There, I could leave this right there and it says everything. I've been saying things like this for as long as I have played the game. Things like frozen orbs, chaos orbs, etc, should have never been soulbound. All crafting materials should not be soulbound.

If I want to build an engineering works in all my garrisons and send all the parts to my engineer, I should be allowed to. I see no reason why I shouldn't. I think it hurts the game more than it helps the game to make things like this soulbound.

Again, perhaps at the start of the expansion this made sense. Did not want people feeling they "had to" level as many characters as fast as possible so they could starting making tons of leather for their gear. Now, at this stage of the game, let people make, trade, or sell anything they want.

Even more so being this expansion seems to be all about gold as the default currency for everything, might as well allow people free trade with their crafting materials.

Best in Slot:

This is not a change I want, this is just a place to place my rebuttal to those that might say, if you do these changes it will allow people to have best in slot gear.

I will give you this following line. These changes will allow non raiders to have best in slot gear.

However, to anyone that raids heroic or higher this might give a few slots of best in slot gear while waiting on drops only. It will not give best in slot gear. Raid gear can be warforged, raid gear can have gem slots, raid gear can have both. Raid gear has better weapons, raid gear has better trinkets, and raid gear has tier sets.

So while these changes could mean someone can have one hell of an item level without actually raiding at a heroic level, it will not allow actual raiders to have best in slot gear. Put it this way, I have on three crafted and even if I could craft more I wouldn't. What I am wearing is better. These changes I seek for professions are for the majority of players who will never see the gear I, and the many ahead of me, are in.

So no, this will not allow everyone to have best in slot gear. It will however allow everyone to feel like they can still make some personal progression. By allowing them to make one new piece once in a while, to upgrade said piece once in a while, be it they are making it themselves or they are farming gold through hard work or the auction house so they can afford the gear.

Sorry, but if you were going to say you disliked this idea because it gives people best in slot gear I say no, it gives non raiders something to aim for and build up to. In other words, it gives people something to do and a reason to log in. Isn't that kind of important?

There they are, only two things I would like to see changed for this expansions professions. Things that I believe would be a positive for the game and the players. Now to think about what could be done for next expansion, because professions need a hell of a lot of work after what blizzard did to them this expansion.

32 comments:

Goodness, yes, from your fingers upon the keyboard to Blizzard's ears for implementing these two changes.

I can't imagine anything else that would be as simple as that, aside from flipping on the flight switch, that would improve the flavor of WoD. To be frank, it would actually probably be an easier sell than flight at this point and might actually do some good for improving the reception of WoD.

I like the crafted (3) design, it's a vast improvement over the 2 slots we were allowed in MoP tied behind a ridiculous random daily research which included 100+ PvP pieces.Now, I can pick and choose which slots I want to fill, and always have the right stats in that slot.

Removing the limit would paper over the gaping chasm left by the removal of VP gear but it wouldn't improve the actual professions system imo.

It wouldn't improve it in the sense that valor was a much cleaner and straight forward system. But it would be a way to work toward something, like people did with valor, as they keep gathering and crafting materials needed for the next upgrade. As in, I need 6 more bloods, so many three more days from my barn unless I get lucky instead of I need 400 more valor, so 5 more dungeons and I have it.

Sure, I agree, not the same, but it is something in an expansion that really offers nothing which makes something look pretty damn good in comparison.

Valor was perfect for that and that is the reason I was so upset with its removal. Everyone is talking about quitting due to the flying issue but I still say if I quit the underlining issue would be no gear progression for my alts because of the loss of valor.

They do not need to fix the apexis crystal gear, they need to abandon it and just put valor gear back in. It really is that simple. They tried to change the system by naming it something else and needing huge numbers to get it and it did not work. Apexis gear sucked from the get go. It is beyond being fixed, at least by blizzards means. They will never lower the prices, drop the upgrade system and increase where you get apexis crysals. Not going to happen even if it should.

Dump crafted 3, allow crafter's to repair gear, maybe it costs a ingot or leather but I have piles. Crafted may not have bis in everything, but make it customizeable, take item to smith or leather or chain armour to LW, he can add few more inches of armour, increasing ac or durability, take to enchanter he can add more crit or damage, take to alchemist he can up a stat like potions, take to engineer he can add some gizmo like chest rockets or turn tailored suit into a iron man like flying suit outside of draenor. Maybe only allow 1-2 features added for space.

Always found the allow crafter to repair the gear to be an interesting concept, but never anything I would push for. So you save a few copper if you are a crafter, but the way gold is thrown around in the game it seems like it is not as important.

Perhaps do it the way FF14 does. If you repair it yourself it lasts longer. So say something has 114 durability, if you repair it yourself it has 228. That could work.

They could do something and I would support it. But I don't really dig the repair it yourself for reduced cost thing. Doesn't really seem beneficial.

The crafted(3) is keeping my level 92 priest honest. She's got all 3 crafted items, bringing her to a 557 gear score, sporting quest rewards and soo lfr gear. Imagine her at level 92, sporting a full (9-piece) 640 raiment (no neck, trinkets or rings). She'd be unstoppable all the way to 100 (and even beyond). With both her and my warlock spinning up gear, I am (almost) able to create 2 pieces each week (with mats coming from druid's barn or trading post and extra garrison resources). It WOULD be an awesome alt catch-up mechanism! While I'd love the idea of removing the # limit, they'd likely raise the character level requirement to closer to 100.

I do agree with not making mats soulbound. I fell victim to my non-tailor warlock building a tailoring hut. I quickly outleveled the 640 crafted gear pieces and found out that I couldn't forward the hexweave to my tailor, therefore couldn't really do anything with it. So into the reagents bank they went.. A month later, I decided herbalism was a lost art and trained into tailoring. Now the mats became relevant again and he actually was able to quickly spin up one of those i640 items my priest is now wearing!

In reality no one can afford to gear their character in all fully upgraded gear at 91, and even if they could, why would they? It is such a huge investment in gold and or time /resources.

And if someone did that, more power to them I say. What is wrong with people feeling strong. I personally like the idea that even non raiders could upgrade their gear every week or so with some effort and feel some personal progression. The entire game is built on getting stronger as time goes along and this build would support that.

The biggest problem I have with the non crafter is that you can not craft the 640 gear until you have a level 3 building. You can not get the level 3 building until you are level 100. So being able to craft gear you can put on at 91 when you are 100 is not that impressive. They screwed that one up. And then not being able to upgrade it unless you are an actual crafter. My poor shaman has a million engineering parts and nothing to do with them. They made some serious mistakes with this expansion as far as professions and their associated building go. In my opinion at least.

You can upgrade crafted gear to 685, 675 for weapons. So basically if you do not raid at heroic or higher, yes, you can get full best in slot from crafted. And I see absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Agree with the removal of Soulbinding Crafting mats, it creates artificial barriers to a player-based in-game economy. People should not have to Raid in order to Bake (a long-standing debate btw: http://laurenandlloyd.com/lloyd-stuff/i-want-to-bake-bread/ )

However, the limit makes sense for 90-99 PvP as even unupgraded pieces are so much more powerful than what characters could normally get (let alone 90 Holdouts, those dastardly people not supporting the price-hike etc. of WoD ;) ) things would get even more unbalanced.

To solve it they could either lower iLevels as well in PvP (which would likely be discouraging to those who actually PvP a lot and hence Gear for it) or open up more Gear options to 90's (by e.g. lowering the character req. of Craftables Archeology and Rare Mob Drops to 90).

Personally, seeing how e.g. the numbers are running amok alreadyhttp://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/14821163695more and more I'm starting to think they could do worse than open up a (perhaps tweaked) Wrath Server, and use it as a starting template for a reboot (like FF14 in a sense did) as basically since Cataclysm certainly mechanics wise the game went downhill fast (I'd also say content wise if it hadn't been for MoP and its rather staggering amount of content even post-removal of too much of it)

OT, this is a hilarious spoof on Watcher http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/17605675014?page=1

They could lift the limit at 100 and keep it in place for 91-99, that would be easy enough to do I am sure.

I would not mind if they did a full reset to wrath again. But I would not want them to redo wrath. I never want to see a remake of ulduar, it was awesome and I saw how blizzard destorys things it remakes. I do not want them to ruin a great memory like that.

The crafted limit needs to go, or at least be raised to 5 or 6. Their reasoning for it doesn't even make sense considering the flood of really good BoEs on the AH. If someone wants to gear up with gold, this is probably the easiest expansion ever to do so.

Agree completely. Professions are terminally broken, but these two changes would go a long way to improving them. I would settle for crafted mats being BoA, they don't have to be freely tradeable.

Unfortunately I don't see the 3-item limit being lifted, because doing so would mean people could gear their alts decently without being dependent on the RNG god Blizz now worships, and without doing any raiding (even LFR) which according to Blizz is not how they want us to play the game.

As you can tell, I am feeling a tad oppressed and pessimistic these days. My MW alt went through all of HM and BRF LFRs yesterday without winning a single piece of gear. Didn't roll bonus on any because it is crappy gear, but still it would have been nice to have a few pieces to DE. It just should not happen that you spend hours in a raid, kill all the bosses, and get an insulting amount of gold as your only reward. ;-)

BoA at the minimum, absolutely. That would at least be something instead of the nothing we have now. I have some characters I made building on with stacks of material they can and will never use. Sad really.

What exactly would be wrong with gearing up easily? I see no problem with that. And the word easily is being used VERY loosely here. Remember to get full crafted gear completely upgrade it would cost you over a million gold or one hell of a boat load of alts and work to make it yourself. Either way, I see nothing "easily" about that. Anyone with that much gold surely worked for it, or that many alts surely worked for it. Like I said, no easily about it.

I feel your pain. That is one of the reasons I am not really working on the legendary on alts this expansion. At least before while I was working on it if I got no drop I got valor to get gear. Now if I get no drops, all I get is the sinking feeling that I wasted my time. And I really hate wasting my time.

Crafted (3):Totally agree that this should be removed. I see no point in the restriction considering all the BoE gear that's actually cheaper! Combined with the daily CDs and soulbound materials, it's just gate after gate after gate...

Soulbound:Totally agree with this as well. I hate the gating of daily CDs, and I hate it even more since it's soulbound. I had totally planned at the beginning to get a bunch of alts ready, so I could craft gear... but then I found out they were soulbound and then the Crafted(3)... so instead I didn't touch an alt for a couple of months...

Best in Slot:The current crafted gear is 685 (675 for weapons). That's heroic level, not mythic level... so how is it best in slot? It also doesn't have set bonuses, which are hugely important. Nor does it have sockets or warforged... Real raid gear is much more BiS.

I have 3 maxed out crafted items, but I don't raid, so I'd definitely have more crafted items if I could. Hell, I have 3 fully upgraded apexis items... With my gear filled out the rest of the way by 2 LFR set items, legendary ring, and the rest are from missions/BoEs. My iLvL is 674 (672 equipped), which is barely normal raid level. It's OK, but it's still no where near BiS. Heroic raiders are going to be 690+ with warforged and mythic mission gear and Mythic raiders are 700+.

Blizzard has killed gear progression for casual players ever since they removed valor gear... Crafted gear could have been an alternative if it was done properly, which as Grumpy is highlighting and I agree, it was not.

I will go a bit against everyone (once again :p) and say I would keep the crafted(3) limit but only for max level upgrade.

WOuld prevent market from being too high from raiders wanting all the gear cause BiS (cause let's be honest, no raider is counting on WF/socket when he is planning his gear)

Overall I do have a overarching better idea for gearing as a whole (which would include crafting), but don't really have the time to write it down right now (and would be better in a post about gear itself)

But all raiders count on mythic, so BiS would only be temporary at best. ;)

The best in slot theory only works for normal and lower raiders. And I see absolutely nothing wrong with them getting continues gear progression even if all they do is normal. I am not one of those elitist jerks that seem to get upset because someone else has gear. Let them have gear.

Always interested in hearing more ideas, so if you ever want to share I would be glad to read and give my opinion on it. Not like blizzard would ever use either of our ideas, but it is still fun to talk about.

I'm a casual heroic raider and my team isn't doing too hot. I am not the one holding us back and me getting better gear isn't going to help us.

I wouldn't spend the money on better gear even if I had that much extra gold lying around anyway, since I'm pouring gold into wow tokens. I wonder how many really would?

Does it only again affect the 1% of WoW that are mythic progression raiders? Or maybe it just buys Blizzard more time telling us that we have plenty of content since we haven't cleared the raid yet?--Regards,

That makes you the average raider. So what is wrong with allowing you some gear progression. As you said, it will not be make or break for you, but is sure as hell would feel nice to get a new upgrade once in a while wouldn't it?

I think even for someone like you that would not spend the gold, if you could make the upgrades you might do it. You might say it won't help your group, but if every one gets one new upgrade you would be amazed how much better the group would do. It does matter and letting people have the ability to upgrade keeps them playing, paying and maybe even happy.

I'm sure blizz would give some silly reason: not forcing people to grind, making lfr or dungeons irrelevant etc but the truth is you can buy gear anyway via gold or real money, be it boes or gear from a run. So what is some heroic gear matter anyway... the limit is just for show, so they don't give ppl another reason to realize that it's now a money game.

That would be a horrible excuse because the backbone of this game is making people do the same thing over and over again. That is why valor was so great. It gave life to the dungeons that otherwise died 1 week after released, if they lived even that long.

That, as I see it, is the biggest failing of this expansion, making the irreverent relevant.

I have been reading your blog and was hoping you could write on something I see as a potential issue.

Gathering....

The boards for PTR 6.2 has hosted a mild flame war between players who have dropped a gathering profession and those who have retained it. The recent change from FelBlood to Felblight has made gathering professions absolutely vital to high-end crafting. The debate has focused on if people who switched to two primary professions when gathering no longer seemed necessary. Some are branding them foolish for falling for a "gimmick" the garrison, player housing, queue based professions (a la SWTOR, Neverwinter).

I honestly thought this appeared to be a permanent looking change, since professions were so ugly to navigate and level prior to Draenor. But they now appear to be back (for this build of the PTR anyway) which is why I would like you to write about the plight of Tailoring.

In order to support the role playing theme of the garrison, the reagent for tailoring changed from cloth to fur. This relatively small change has snowballed to the point it may have broken the entire profession in 6.2. Cloth Scavenging makes tailoring a gathering profession, Enchanters and Tailors farm mats by killing mobs for drops. Now mobs don't drop any Felblight and the barn, which the only catch up mechanic for tailors/enchanters, doesn't produce them either.

This entire expansion tailors/enchanters have generated fewer Primal Spirit's because they decided to change the resource from cloth (dropped by humanoids) to fur dropped by beasts. The reason this affects Primals is that all gathering professions have a 10-15% chance of obtaining them. Primal Spirits are dropped almost exclusively by Humanoids and Elementals, the loot table for Sumptuous Fur consists solely of beasts with very little cross over. That means that tailors get no Primals from gathering from their profession.

Am I missing something, I created a tailor/enchanter tank back in Cata specifically to farm dungeons for cash and my main’s enchants, and only play the toon occasionally. But I still play the character enough that I will unlock Tanaan and quest there, and I want that time to be valuable and not locked out of obtaining a valuable resource.Regards,Rickhardmann

This is more of an expansion comment. They simplified leveling a new crafting profession from scratch by adding new recipes that only take the newest materials, but what I think they should have done was just to simplify the ten years of different materials. Basically make any recipe from past expansions use "generic old material name". Instead of there being so many different types of each material there really only needs to be old and current for each type. Eliminate the need to have daily cd's to finish leveling professions, possibly speed up the rate they can be acquired, and your two changes and there'd be a much bigger desire for crafted goods giving people a desire to actually have professions and use them.

It will become way too easy if all the crafting materials are not soulbound. This will drop the price of crafted staff on the AH and I don't think that this is the general idea of Blizz...just my opinion :)